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Christoph Waltz
) Vienna, Austria | Gender = Male | Years Active = 1977-present | Nationality = German (1956-present); Austrian (2010-present)}} Christoph Waltz (kristɔf valts); born 4 October 1956) is an Austrian actor, who also holds German citizenship. He received international acclaim for his portrayal of SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and the British Academy Film Awards, Golden Globe Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009. Early life Christoph Waltz was born in Vienna, Austria. He is the son of German-born Johannes Waltz and Austrian-born Elisabeth Urbancic, set and stage designers. His maternal grandmother was Burgtheater actress Maria Mayen, and his step-grandfather was actor Emmerich Reimers. His great-grandparents also worked in the theatre. Career Waltz studied acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna. He also attended the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. He started as a stage actor, performing at venues such as Zurich's Schauspielhaus Zürich, Vienna's Burgtheater, and the Salzburg Festival. He became a prolific television actor. In 2000, he made his directorial debut, with the German-language television production Wenn man sich traut. In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Waltz portrayed SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa, aka "The Jew-Hunter". Clever, courteous and multilingual, but also self-serving, cunning, implacable, and murderous, the character of Landa was such that Tarantino feared he "might have written a part that was un-playable". Waltz received the Best Actor Award for the performance at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and received acclaim from critics and the public. In 2009, he began sweeping critics' awards circuits, receiving awards for Best Supporting Actor from the New York Film Critics Circle, Boston Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and for Best Supporting Actor at the 67th Golden Globe Awards and the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards in January 2009. The following year, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor. He is, as of 2012, the only actor to win an award for appearing in a Tarantino film. Tarantino acknowledged the importance of Waltz to his film by stating: "I think that Landa is one of the best characters I've ever written and ever will write, and Christoph played it to a tee... It's true that if I couldn't have found someone as good as Christoph I might not have made Inglourious Basterds". Waltz later played gangster Benjamin Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet (2011). That same year he starred in Water for Elephants, opposite Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon, and in Roman Polanski's Carnage with Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly and Kate Winslet. In 2012 he played Dr. King Schultz in Django Unchained (2012), Tarantino's next film after Inlgourious Basterds. Personal life Christoph Waltz is fluent in German, French, and English and speaks all three of the languages in Inglourious Basterds. Although Landa also spoke Italian in that movie, he stated on the Adam Carolla Podcast that he does not actually speak it in real life. He is his own voice-actor for German translations. He has three adult children from a prior marriage, and is raising a young daughter with his wife, costume designer Judith Holste. Waltz currently maintains residences between New York, London, and Berlin. Nationality Christoph Waltz is a dual citizen of both Austria and Germany. He considers himself Austrian, calling his German passport a "legal, citizenship law banality". His father held German citizenship, so he was born with German citizenship as well. He became an Austrian citizen after his Oscar win in 2010. During a press conference he said: "I was born in Vienna, grew up in Vienna, went to school in Vienna, graduated in Vienna, studied in Vienna, started acting in Vienna – and there would be a few further Viennese links. How much more Austrian do you want?" Trivia *Christoph Waltz's first week on set of Inglourious Basterds was also his first scene in the film. Filmography Gallery Hans Landa Poster.jpg Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds photo still outside.jpg Christoph Waltz shakes hand with Denis Ménochet.jpg Léa Seydoux and Colonel Christoph Waltz.jpg Hans Landa with pipe.jpg Christoph Waltz looks serious.jpg Christoph Waltz points an Walter P38.jpg Christoph Waltz with a strudel and smoking a cigarette.jpg Christoph Waltz with Diane Kruger shoe in the tavern stage.jpg Christoph Waltz as Hans Landa in the cinema lobby.jpg Christoph Waltz points at Brad Pitt's face.jpg Christoph Waltz phone hands up.jpg Christoph Waltz hands and phone.jpg Christoph Waltz points at the phone.jpg Eli Roth and Christoph Waltz shocked.jpg Christoph Waltz talking on the radio tavern.jpg Christoph Waltz as Colonel Hans Landa room photo.jpg Hans Landa Christoph Waltz black and white photo image.jpg References External links * IMDB page * Christoph Waltz Fans website * RottenTomatoes Category:Actors